


Family and Friends Are The Best Medicine

by Superhero_Obsessed21



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Belly Rubs, Caretaking, F/M, Family, Food Poisoning, Gen, Love, Sick Barry Allen, Sick Character, Sickfic, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-24 07:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20702036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superhero_Obsessed21/pseuds/Superhero_Obsessed21
Summary: Mostly West-Allen fluff.Barry’s never ending hunger drives him and Cisco to eat somewhere unknown. They both get sick that night, each at their own homes. Iris cares for Barry, Caitlin cares for both of them.Joe finds out Barry's sick and comes by with his family to check on him.A rough night and morning turns into a special afternoon of spending time with family and friends





	Family and Friends Are The Best Medicine

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of vomit, nothing explicit.

Barry had fallen asleep early last night, saying he had a headache. So when he got out of bed to use the bathroom for the 2nd time in the pst 40 minutes Iris got up to make sure he was ok. She knocked lightly on the bathroom door. 

You ok Barr?

“Stomachs off.”, he said. “I’m ok though.”

“Do you need anything?”, she asked.

“I’m ok Iris.”  
“Ok,”, she said knowing it would just make things worse to push it. She didn’t want to upset him.

When he got back to bed, she saw that he was extremely pale. She placed her hand of his forehead. The poor thing was sweating and shivering. 

“Does is hurt or is it upset?” She asked placing a hand lightly on his stomach. 

“Both.”, he said swallowing hard. 

“Do you want to try and take something for it.”

He was going to answer her, but his stomach had other ideas. He clasped his hand over his mouth and sped off to the bathroom. Almost right away she heard him gag. 

He hadn’t had time to even close the door.  
She went in and kneeled down next to him, rubbing his back as his stomach continued to expel it’s contents. When he finished she wet a cloth for him so he could clean his face. He was breathing hard trying to catch his breath.

“Do you feel any better?”, she asked. He was now sitting against the tub. 

“Not so much.”, he said.  
She could tell he would be heading over to the toilet again any second, so she sat down next to him, trying to provide some comfort.

Sure enough he jumped back up, leaning over the toilet, and started to vomit again. 

She was rubbing his back again now.  
“Just breath babe.”

He was vomiting a lot now, trying to catch his breath as wave after wave of vomit was making its way up from his stomach and into the toilet. She hoped there wasn’t much left that still needed to come up.

The spasms finally subsided, “You ok now?”, she asked after a couple of minutes of him staring into the toilet. 

“I think so.”, he said, looking absolutely awful!  
She flushed for him, and then went back to the sink, wetting the cloth again.

She wiped his mouth, “Do you feel any better now?” She asked. 

“Yes.”, he said.  
She was relieved for that. 

She sat next to him again. It was probably best to wait a few more minutes before heading back to the bedroom.

“I must have ate something that didn’t agree with me.”, he said. 

“Maybe.”, she said. 

“Maybe you caught a virus.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”, he said.

“Well either way I’m glad you seem to be ok.”  
“Are you ready to go lay down?”

“Yeah.”, he replied standing up. 

“You’re stomach still hurt?”  
She noticed he was laying on his back hand on stomach.

“A little bit.”, he admitted.

She gently moved his hand and started to rub lightly.

“Is this ok?”

He shook his head yes and closed his eyes.  
She started yawing, she could tell he had fallen asleep. She cuddled up to him, hopefully she wouldn’t catch whatever this was.  
The way his body works now, she had no idea what this could be. If it was a stomach flu, his body would most likely kick it out fast.  
He did eat a lot of food everyday, so he could have eaten something bad or something that just didn’t agree with him, she thought. 

Either way she loved him and would always be there to take care of him, so she stayed close, arm around his chest.  
They slept like that until morning arrived.

He still looked a bit pale when she looked over at him, but nothing like last night. She felt his forehead, a little warm she thought. 

His eyes opened.  
“Hi babe.”  
“Hi.”, he replied.  
Sounded like his throat was sore from the events of last night. 

“How do you feel?”  
“Not great.”, he said.

“Well it’s Saturday. Seems like a good day to rest and relax.”

“Yeah I guess so.”

He had always hated being sick, I mean everyone does, but he had always been stubborn when it came to giving in to it. 

“How’s your stomach? Do you want to try eating something?”

“Still a bit off, but yeah I should try to eat something. I don’t want to have any other issues on top of my stomach.  
Maybe one of my bars.”, he said

“Ok. I’ll be right back.”, she said rubbing his arm.

His phone was buzzing. Barry grabbed it from his bedside table. It was a text from Cisco. 

“Hey man! How are you feeling?

That’s weird Barry thought. How would Cisco know he wasn’t feeling well?

“Not leaning over the toilet anymore, so better I guess.”

“Oh. It was the food then!”

That’s right, it just dawned on him. They had been out testing some new tech yesterday when Barry had some of his all the time hunger pains. They stopped at a diner for lunch. The food didn’t taste that great, but they didn’t think it was bad. They figured it must be some different kind of spice. 

They must have both got a mild case of food poisoning, Barry thought. 

“Sorry man! I have to learn to control my stomachs needs. I should have had a calorie bar with me.”

“It’s not your fault, I was hungry too.”

“Did it hit you hard?”, Barry asked.

“Yeah. It was pretty bad.”, Cisco admitted.

Barry knew that his body worked a lot different then Cisco’s, and that meant Cisco probably had it a lot worse then he did last night. 

Iris had come back in the room. Barry had motioned to her to look at the phone. 

“Ask him if he needs anything.”, she said

“Do you want me to ask Iris to stop by? Do you need anything?”

“Caitlin’s stopping by.”

“I had told her what was going on and she insisted on coming over to take a look at me.”

“Tell Iris thank you though.”

“Feel better man!”

“Same!”, Cisco said.

“Well at least we know now..”, said Iris.

“Yeah”, Barry said holding his stomach.

“You ok? Iris asked

“Yeah. I’m ok.”

“Here.”, she handed him a tray with one of his calorie bars, dry toast and Gatorade. “Try to eat.”

His stomach was saying no, but he knew he had to at least try. 

“I’ll be back Iris said. I’m going to freshen up.”

When she returned to the room Barry was on his side asleep. The tray was on his side table. He had managed to drink the Gatorade and eat half of the calorie bar. He didn’t touch the toast.  
That made her nervous because she knew how many calories his body needed everyday.  
She covered him with a blanket and made the room as dark as possible for him. 

As she was leaving the room the doorbell rang.

“Caitlin.”, she said opening the door. 

“Hi Iris. Cisco said Barry’s sick too. I figured I’d come and see if he needed anything while I was out. I gave Cisco some anti nausea medication which seemed to help. I don’t know if it would work for Barry but we can try if he wants too.”

“Come in.”, Iris said.

“How is he?”

Iris told her about last night and this morning. “He says he’s still feeling a little off, but better. He couldn’t even finish a calorie bar though.”

“Let’s go take a look.”, Caitlin said. 

When they got to the room Barry wasn’t there. 

“He must be in the bathroom.”, Iris said. “I should go make sure he’s ok.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Barry?, are you ok?” Iris asked knocking on the door.

“Don’t come in Iris!”

He hadn’t answered her question, but she knew the answer from his response. He may not be throwing up now, but she was sure that the food he had managed to get down wasn’t staying there. 

“Caitlin’s here Barry. We’ll be in the room.”

“Ok.”, he said.

She could tell by his voice that he really didn’t feel well. 

When he got back to the room he was looking paler then earlier. He walked past them heading into the bed.  
He must be dizzy, Iris thought.

“Hey Barr.”, said Caitlin with a sad look on her face.

“Hey”, he said. “Why are you...!”

“Cisco told me....”

“Oh. How is he?”

“He’s pretty sick, but I gave him something to help. He was sleeping when I left.”

Barry looked upset. She knew it was because he couldn’t do anything to make Cisco better and he also felt like this was his fault. 

“Let’s see if we can’t make you more comfortable, ok?”

Iris’s cell was buzzing now.  
“It’s dad. I’ll take it downstairs.”

“Ok Barr. How do you feel? Be honest with me.”

“Not so great.”, he said.

“How’s the stomach?”, she asked.

“I still have cramps.”

“When was the last time you threw up?”

“Around 3am I think.”

“Iris said that you were able to keep down half of a calorie bar?”

“Yeah, but it didn’t stay with me.”  
She knew what he meant. 

“Ok. Let’s try two of these.”  
She handed him two small white pills. 

“If they work on you they’ll help to relieve the cramping and they’ll coat your stomach so you will feel up to eating, and the food will hopefully stay with you.”

“Where your bodies in a weakened state, they may just get through that metabolism of yours.”

He took them along with some water.  
“Thanks he said.”

“If it’s ok with you, I would like to take your temperature and some blood.”

“That’s fine.”

She stuck the thermometer in his ear. 101. “That’s low grade for you.” She said with a smile. 

She finished up with a blood sample. 

She put everything away. 

“You feel any different?”

“Yeah. The cramps are almost gone.”  
She gave him a big smile.

“Perfect! If you feel up to it, try to at least finish the bar.  
I’ll cal you tonight to see how you are. In the meantime get some rest and feel better.”

“Thanks Caitlin. I really appreciate this!”

“Of course Barr!”

A few minutes later Iris returned to the room. She sat next to her husband on the bed stroking his hair.  
“How are you feeling?”

“Getting there, he said. My stomach stopped cramping anyway.”

“That’s good news!”, she said. “You should rest. Let your body heal.”

“Do you need anything?”

“Another Gatorade maybe.” 

“You got it!”, she said

She grabbed the Gatorade and another one of his bars, just so it was there if he wanted it. 

“I’ll be in the living room. Text me if you need anything.”

“Love you!”, he said.

“Love you too!”, she said kissing him on the forehead. 

It was almost three hours later when she was pulled away from her computer as she heard Barry yell.

“Did you see that? How could he miss that pass?”  
“He practically put it in his hands.”

She figured he was watching a game and she was right. 

TV on, phone on speaker sitting next to him on the bed.  
He was now sitting up, pillows against the headboard.

“I know right?”, said Cisco.

“Hi Cisco.”, Iris said bending over the phone.  
“Hi Iris.”,he responded.

“Feeling better?”

“Getting there.”, he said.  
“I’d be better if Central City’s receiver knew how to hold onto a football.”

She snickered. “Boys” (rolling her eyes)

She noticed The empty wrapper from Barry’s calorie bar and the empty Gatorade next to his bed. She took a better look at him. He looked a whole lot better now. 

“You want some lunch Barr?”, his eyes now glued to the tv.

“Barr?”  
“Ha?”, he asked

“Food Barry? What do you think your stomach can handle?”

Just then the doorbell rang.  
“Who could that be?”, she said.

Barry was oblivious, still concentrating on the game.

She left the room to go answer the door.

“Dad, Cecile what are you guys doing here?”

“We thought you could use some company so we grabbed some lunch for all of us.”, said Joe handing her 2 big bags. 

“There’s soup in there for Barry.”, Cecile said.

“Speaking of Barry...”, Joe started

“He’s upstairs dad. He’s feeling better..”

“I’m going up to say hi.”, he said.

After he left Cecile turned to Iris “he’s been worried about Barry since he hung up the phone with you earlier.”

“I figured.”, Iris smiled. 

She heated up a big bowl of soup and headed up to the room.

Joe was sitting on the end of the bed opposite Barry. 

Barry’s call with Cisco was still active.  
All three of them now talking about the game. 

She put the soup on the tray still there from earlier.  
“Here you go Barr. Eat what you can.”

Joe looked at her like where’s mine.

“Downstairs dad.”

“Seeing all that fried food would probably upset Barry’s stomach.”

“No it won’t.”, Barry chimed in. 

Iris rolled her eyes again.

“Sure dad. I’ll be right back.” 

Barry handed her his already empty bowl.  
“Could I have some more too please?”

“Sure Barr.”  
She wanted to roll her eyes at him too, but honestly, she was way to happy to see him feeling better, almost back to being himself.

“I’ll be right back.”, she said walking out the door.

Cecile has been sitting on the couch feeding Jenna.  
“How’s it going up there?”, she asked.

“They’re watching football, complaining about failed pass attempts and their hungry.” 

“So it’s just like any other weekend day.”, Cecile said.

“Yup! And I wouldn’t want it any other way!”, Iris said with a smile.


End file.
